16كَلّا ۖ إِنَّهُ كانَ لِآياتِنا عَنيدًاMuhammad AsadNay, verily, it is against Our messages that he knowingly, stubbornly sets himself1Lit., "he is wont (kana) to set himself". The noun anid, derived from the verb anada, denotes "one who opposes or rejects something that is true, knowing it to be true" (Lisan al-'Arab). The element of human contrariness and stubbornness is implied in the use of the auxiliary verb kana, which indicates here a permanently recurring phenomenon despite its past-tense formulation. I am, therefore of the opinion that verses 18-25, although ostensibly formulated in the past tense, must also be rendered in the present tense.